Gratitude in the Ugly Beautiful

Monday was my last guest post for this month on Mississippi Women Bloggers...it actually completely slipped my mind.  The Lord brought it to my mind today and I went over to check it out.  As I was reading what I had written several months ago, tears flooded my eyes with His faithfulness.

Today has been a rough day.  I've been emotional, sick, and did I mention emotional?  Yet, here He was reminding me to find Gratitude in the Ugly Beautiful...maybe you need that reminder today too.  Just click on the link and read what He has been teaching me about the ugly beautiful things.

Five Minute Friday: FLY

In our backyard growing up, on the playground at school...wherever there was a swing set, I loved being in it - I guess I still do (although I may feel a little silly as the years have gone on).  Pushing up and swinging as high as I could go, closing my eyes and for a moment almost feeling like I was flying.  Flying above it all - gaining a perspective that I couldn't quite imagine but knew I'd enjoy.

There have been other times in my life that I have that urge - looking out over the Grand Canyon, standing with my toes in the water on a beach, being in the Space Needle in Seattle, standing in the mild of a wide open pasture that seems to have no end...just the desire to close my eyes and be lifted up - to fly out over it all.

Those silly questionnaires or journal entries we'd have in school - "what animal would you most like to be?"  How could anyone have any other answer besides some type of bird?  To have the ability to fly, to soar, to just run and lift off...not exactly to escape anything but more so to have a wider view of it all - to be able to take it all in a bit more clearly.

It wasn't just a desire - it was a feeling - something my heart felt when I imagined flying above it all - my heart seemed to take off even when my feet were solidly on the ground.

I love how He grants us the desires of our heart when our heart lines up with His and in spite of all the times that it doesn't.  He has allowed me that feeling of my heart flying more times than I can count.

Having a man who seeks after Him more than anything else in this world, look at me the way that he does even when I'm 31 weeks along and miserably hot - it makes my heart fly.  Opening my arms to a toddler who runs at me with full abandon while laughing hysterically - it makes my heart fly.  Sitting on our front steps and taking in the African sky - it makes my heart fly.

thankful for His reminders of His grace and His love and His faithfulness...that He can always make my heart fly.

Thankful Thursdays

Although I haven't done a Thankful Thursday post in a few weeks...I have still been very thankful and keeping up with my "Thankful Journal".  This week has been a much better week health wise for me so I thought I'd play a little catch up!

#472 - Internet shopping (Amazon, Etsy, etc) it just makes life overseas easier when it comes to birthday & Christmas gifts!

#475 - Ryleigh saying "Ooooohhhh I musta forgot" when being corrected/disciplined about a rule she already knows - it's really quite funny

#478 - Ryleigh's excitement over sleeping in her "tent" aka her mosquito net

#484 - grilled pizza crusts - my friend Jodie introduced me to these a few weeks back and they. are. awesome.

#489 - safety during the elections

#495 - milkshakes - laugh if you want but after days of severe acid reflux and keeping no food down - they can become your best friend

#503 - Team meeting days - I do love hanging out with our team and updating the calendar!

#505 - learning how to best show respect to Steve in our marriage

#508 - Hiding His word in my heart...and hearing Ryleigh do the same

#515 - Settlers of Catan

Seeds of Hope

I'd like to send you over to our co-workers blog here, so that you can read about the Seeds of Hope project that happened on their last bush trip.  It really is a pretty awesome project and we need you praying that He continues to move in the lives of the villagers as our team continues to follow up in the weeks to come!

Tuesday Tidbits

This blog world is a funny place.  It sometimes makes me forget that I'm not best friends with certain people because I feel like I know so much about their life and their walk with the Lord.  Some of these people would make you laugh to think that they would even know who I am but there is one who I constantly wonder why we weren't friends when we lived in the same town - attended the same college...that it took us being on the other side of the globe to connect via blogs.  She shares her heart so eloquently and I love her for it.  The Lord has used her words in ways she'll never know to teach me, remind me, mold me after Him.  This past week she shared a quote from Elizabeth Elliot that I absolutely loved...

"But everything in this scene is the King's business, which he looks on in loving sympathy and understanding, for, as Baron Von Hugel said, "The chain of cause and effect which makes up human life, is bisected at every point by a vertical line relating us and all we do to God." This is what He has given us to do, this task here on earth, not the task we aspired to do, but this one.  The absurdities involved cut us down to size.  The great discrepancy between what we envisioned and what we've got force us to be real. And God is our great Reality, more real than the realest of earthly conditions, an unchanging Reality. It is His providence that has put us where we are.  It's where we belong.  It is for us to receive it - all of it - humbly, quietly, thankfully."  (p.228) 

from Keep a Quiet Heart by Elizabeth Elliot

Thank you Laura for sharing what He is teaching you ever so transparently...it makes a difference!

A Lifestyle of Gratitude

Would love to have you join me over at MS Women Bloggers today as I guest post on "A Lifestyle of Gratitude" - see you there!

Fall Festival

This post is a little late...I had every intention but was simply sidetracked...anyhow, we got together with our Tulear team and had a Fall Festival of sorts for the kiddos - it was fun and an added bonus that we had our new CSL family in for a visit!  All of our hubbies were present - they were manning the grill throughout most of the photos and the hamburgers were delicious!   Here's a peek into our evening...

    

             

Five Minute Friday - Truth

It's that time again - if you want to link up go here.

Go...

Truth.

I hear it when I speak to her.  It pours from somewhere deep inside me like an unending fountain.  I take pause because it often surprises me when I hear what I'm saying. 

So grateful.

Thankful that He allows His truth to pour from me - overflowing into her beautiful, on purpose, specially planned life.  that even when my life is far from reflecting Him, He's faithful to use me to speak to her...that joy filled toddler that radiates the Truth of His goodness, of His life, of His faithfulness. 

It's after the noise has stopped from the day that those truths often come back to me.

The truth that she is beautiful.  That she is wonderfully & perfectly created.  That He has the most amazing plans for her.  That she is loved even when she leaves messes, or forgets to go in the potty, or intentionally disobeys.  The truths that we discipline her out of unconditional love.  The truth that often needs no words and just arms wrapped around her so tightly, when she can't quite put words to her almost 3 year old emotions.  The truth of how lovely her songs to the Lord are even when they are made up - just cries from her tiny heart.

It's after she's gone to bed and I'm still awake that He whispers those truths on repeat to me.  That His truths don't change between age 3 and age 28.  they are consistent.  He is consistent.  Truth never changes.  What a beautiful and soothing song to fall asleep to in His arms.  

Truth.

...Stop

Guest Blogger

This month I am guest blogging every Monday over at Mississippi Women Bloggers...hop on over here to check it out!  Today, was more of an introduction day but I'll be sharing what God has been teaching me about having a thankful heart and an attitude of gratitude! Thanks!

Five Minute Friday

Won't you join in today?  Write, speak from the heart, blog without over thinking - link up with the 5 minute Friday here.

GRACE

Go...

It's such a simple word...almost deceiving in the easy way it is to pronounce, to sing, to put in a sentence.  A beautiful word with a breathtaking meaning...yet "grace" - TRUE grace...it's hard.  difficult.  the accepting of it that is...to truly wrap my head around the definition of receiving something I don't deserve.  that i haven't worked for. that there is no checklist or prerequisites for.  there's no file folder to file it in.  my brain isn't wired to fully grasp it.  not in my sin state.  not in my humanness.  

on the other hand it seems easy enough to give to others - they seem more worthy somehow...or maybe it's just because it makes me feel good to give grace.  does it always go back to selfish motives?  maybe that's why it's hard for me to accept it.  to view it as a free gift.  isn't there always an ulterior motive rooted down deep?  down deep beneath the masks and facades that we walk though this life with? the fear that ultimately He - the Grace Giver - will hold up a mirror showing my true self and how unworthy of it I am? 

so i sit with my tear stained face too humbled to even look up to heaven because in the midst of every question, every doubt, every fear...His Grace is there.  It's covering up and erasing all of the question marks that seem to wrap themselves around my heart.

His Grace is ENOUGH.

enough.

it. is. enough.  

A New School Year

2 weeks ago the deaf class started meeting again and in a new (and bigger) classroom!  Hasina has 19 students this year and we have already enjoyed meeting the new children.  The students are between 6 years and 20 years old - all in one classroom!  Our first week, Ryleigh and I went to check out their schedule for the year and to make sure we could still do our weekly Bible stories & crafts.  Thankful that Hasina said yes - it's such a blessing to have that open door!  We took a small gift to welcome them back - finger puppets made by the GAs at my home church in MS.  The children loved them!!

Last week, I took a felt board (also from the GAs at my home church) that was a gift for the class and told the creation story.  The students loved recreating the story on the felt board and are looking forward to the next story this upcoming week!

I am so thankful for this ministry and that the Lord continues to give me opportunities with patient people (Hasina) that help me with my language!  Praising Him for the gift of telling His stories to these precious children that have definitely had my heart since the beginning.